''Culloden'' (known as ''The Battle of Culloden'' in the U.S.) is a 1964

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

written and directed by Peter Watkins for

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

. It portrays the 1746

Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden (; gd, Blàr Chùil Lodair) was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince Wi ...

, which resulted in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

's destruction of the Scottish

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took ...

and, in the words of the narrator, "tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands." Described in its opening credits as "an account of one of the most mishandled and brutal battles ever fought in Britain," ''Culloden'' was hailed as a breakthrough for its presentation of a historical event in the style of modern TV war reporting, as well as its use of non-professional actors. The film was based on John Prebble's study of the battle.

Production

''Culloden'' was Watkins's first full-length film. It was also his first use of his docudrama style in which actors portray historical characters being interviewed by filmmakers on the scene as though it were happening in front of news cameras. The film was produced on a low budget, with only a handful of extras and a single cannon. Watkins made use of carefully planned camera angles to give the appearance of an army. Watkins also "wanted to break through the conventional use of professional actors in historical melodramas, with the comfortable avoidance of reality that these provide, and to use amateurs—ordinary people—in a reconstruction of their own history." He accordingly used an all-amateur cast from London and the

Scottish Lowlands The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lo ...

for the Hanoverian forces, and people from

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...

for the Jacobite army. This later became a central technique of Watkins's filmmaking. According to an estimate by the cinematographer for the film, Dick Bush, about 85% of all camerawork in Culloden was hand-held. This '' cinéma vérité''-style shooting gave an already gritty reality a sense of present action. Culloden looked like a documentary of an event that occurred long before the film camera was invented.

Reception

''Culloden'' won in 1965 both a Society of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) TV Award for Specialised Programmes and the British Screenwriters' Award of Merit. In a list of the

100 Greatest British Television Programmes The BFI TV 100 is a list of 100 television programmes or series that was compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), as chosen by a poll of industry professionals, with the aim to determine the best United Kingdom, British television pr ...

drawn up by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, ''Culloden'' was placed 64th. Writing for Eye for Film, Amber Wilkinson praised ''Culloden'', commenting that "the mastery of atkins'sdirection is obvious from first to last".

Production crew

*Production design – Anne Davey, Colin MacLeod, Brendon Woods *Makeup artist – Ann Brodie *Sound department – John Gatland, Lou Hanks *Production unit – Rodney Barnes, Valerie Booth, Roger Higham, Jennifer Howie, Michael Powell *Historical advisor – John Prebble *Production unit – Geraldine Proudfoot, Geoff Sanders *Battle coordinator – Derek Ware

References

External links

* {{Peter Watkins 1964 television films 1964 films BBC television docudramas Films directed by Peter Watkins Jacobite rising of 1745 films Scottish Gaelic-language films Fiction set in 1746 1960s British films

Production

Reception

Production crew

See also

References

Further reading

External links